Getting Paid for Online Surveys: Is It Worth It?

When one thinks of making money on the Internet, one of the first things that comes to mind is online surveys. Market research is a big industry, and information on the consumer base is invaluable to corporations. Thus, legitimate companies will allow people to take surveys and get paid for their opinion on goods, advertisements, and services. However, consumers ought to be wary of the multitude of fake survey companies online that will simply use personal details to spam their inboxes.

Enter GlobalTestMarketAfter conducting some research of my own on these companies, I have found that GlobalTestMarket is

likely the most worthwhile company to earn money for survey taking. While many companies only offer entries into sweepstakes competitions that are nearly impossible to win, GlobalTestMarket's primary incentive to getting paid for online surveys is the MarketPoints system.

Essentially, a MarketPoint is worth 5 cents. When a customer reaches 1000 MarketPoints, they can cash out those points for a total of $50. The question is: how easy is it to get MarketPoints?

To answer that question, I registered on GlobalTestMarket in late May. The registration process is incredibly long and tedious -- it took me about an hour to complete. You have to complete ten personal, unpaid surveys so that GlobalTestMarket can ensure you are getting paid for online surveys related to you.

My experienceI have participated in every survey that GlobalTestMarket has offered me. It's been about two and a half weeks since I took my stab at getting paid for online surveys through GlobalTestMarket. On an average day, I am sent 5-6 surveys in my e-mail. The average survey takes about 20-25 minutes and earns 40 MarketPoints if completed. This could feasibly translate into an hourly wage of $6, which sounds like some easy money for just getting paid for online surveys.

However, I only have 260 MarketPoints, or $13, after getting paid for online surveys on GlobalTestMarket. Although I've only been on for just over two weeks, it's a far cry from the potential $6/hour wage. I'm not able to take surveys and get paid a liveable wage because of the process of screening. I believe that the average consumer will be screened out of at least 50% of the surveys they attempt to take; for me, it's been closer to 75%. If your answers to the preliminary questions do not match the demographic the market research company is looking for, you will be sent back to GlobalTestMarket's site. Although you get an entry in the daily and monthly sweepstakes for being screened out, it's not much compensation for your time.

The verdictIt's not uncommon to get essentially the same survey sent to your inbox daily. I took one on my DVD purchases, and this particular survey does not want anyone who has taken a related survey for another 3 months. So, it's become a daily ritual for me to get screened out from this entertainment survey. Furthermore, I was once screened out of a survey I had been doing for about 25 minutes, which, as I'm sure you can imagine, was quite a frustrating experience.

So, can you get paid for online survey taking? Yes, but not much. If you imagine that getting paid for online surveys will be a get-rich-scheme, you may want to reconsider. Even with reputable companies like GlobalTestMarket, getting paid for online surveys is a time-consuming and tedious process that doesn't pay hardly enough to make a living from. However, if you have some time to kill, getting paid for online surveys through GlobalTestMarket is a smart, safe way to earn some extra spending cash.